Cabin Fever
by IIriokuII
Summary: A war starts outside the walls of the Team Fortress headquarters, causing the respawn system to go out. Set in 2fort, with added bits for the base. OC Fem!Sniper and Femgineer. Sniper POV for the most part, maybe a bit of Engie POV later on. Bad summary is bad. Sniper/Scout, Engie/Spy. Rated T for violence and language.
1. Meet the BLUs

_It's freezing in here… _I shudder, tugging my lightweight sweatshirt around my shoulders. _Can't this bloody airport turn down the air conditioning, just a little bit?_ I look around at the people sitting in the flight reception area, wondering how they could stand the temperature. They all seemed content, however, meanwhile I felt like the cold was seeping into my bones. I pushed my aviators up my nose, watching the groups of people swarming to and from their oh-so-important flights. There were all sorts of people here; eager, excited-looking travelers, exhausted tourists, frazzled mothers dragging children in tow, and a vast amount of businessmen running frantically to their flight gates.

I suppose you'll want to know what exactly it is I'm doing here. I've just flown in from Australia to the United States, pursuing a job. However, it's not just some average, run-of-the-mill job. A group that called themselves the Builders League United sent a message to me, stating that they had a job open for a sniper. So, seeing as I hadn't had a job in almost a month, I accepted without question. By the next week, I was packed and on the plane to Utah. And that's how I got here, waiting in a freezing airport lobby for someone they called "the engineer" to come and take me to the BLU's base. I certainly hope they'll get here soon, before I freeze to death. I don't have to wait long before I'm approached by a woman in a blue t-shirt and black jeans.

"Hey there, missy. I'm your ride." She says in a thick southern accent.

"Are you the engineer?" I ask, getting to my feet and picking up my baggage.

"That I am, darling. I'm BLU's Engineer. You're the new Sniper, huh?" I give a nod as she looks me over. "You're quite a bit taller than I imagined." She turns on her heel and waves her hand towards the door. "Let's get goin', it's like a meat locker in here. The van's parked just outside."

I follow her out, stepping gratefully into the warm, dry air outside. She leads me to a busted up old blue utility van that has several baseball-sized dents in the side, and slides the side door open. I throw my bags into the back, then climb into the passenger's seat of the van. It's surprisingly clean and well-kept on the inside. I lean back against the seat as the van starts, tipping my hat forwards to shield my eyes from the bright southern sun.

"Wake up, we're here." I feel a hand nudging my shoulder as I crack my eyes open. The sun's setting, I realize, as we step out of the van. _I must've been asleep for ages…_

"C'mon, snoozer, the rest of the team will wanna meet'cha." I rub my eyes, trying to push the sleepiness away.

On the way over, Engineer explained how things worked at the BLU base. Every day, we would gear up and head to the battlefield, where we would fight to get into the enemy base and get ahold of their intelligence briefcase. She also explained that if I got injured, I could call for the Medic, who would come and heal me with his medigun. When the question of death came up, she told me about the respawn system. When we get killed, we reappear in a building near the edge of the battlefield, at the very end of our base. All injuries are healed, and we're battle-ready as soon as we hit the ground. She also explained how we go about addressing each other. We don't go by names, but rather, by titles.

As I step into the base, I notice two distinct things at the same time; one, the place wreaks of cigarettes, and two, the common area we'd entered into contained three men, who were all staring at me. The first one to speak was a thickset man with a strong Russian accent. He broke off his conversation about guns with another smaller man to speak to me.

"Is this new Sniper?" He asks, getting to his feet. He walks over to me and holds out a hand. "I am Heavy Weapons guy. I use big guns and kill all tiny baby REDs." I take his hand and shake it, smiling up at him. I hadn't noticed that the slightly shorter man had walked up behind the Heavy. He was quite a bit smaller when compared to the heavy, but he was also fairly well-built.

"And I am ze team's Medic." He says, smiling at me. "It is good to finally meet our new Sniper." I give a wide grin, surprised by such friendliness; however, something about the man bothered me a bit. His smile reached his eyes, yes, but the smile seemed rather wild.

"Oi'll make sure tah holler for yah if I'm in a rough spot, then." I chuckle, silently hoping to myself that that won't be too soon. The two then return to the couch, starting up their conversation over guns once more. The engineer gives me a thumbs-up and then left to talk to a black man who was extremely drunk. As soon as she went, an eager boy comes, who looked to be no older than me. He jogs up to me with a flirty smile.

"Hiyah, toots." He says, throwing an arm around my shoulder. "I'm the Scout. I'm the fastest guy on this base, y'know? Plus I'm wicked fucking strong. Check it out." He lets go of me, flexing. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

I roll my eyes. "That's cute, wanka; but ah, not very impressive." I chuckle, waving him off. He merely shrugs, elbowing me.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart. How about you let me show yah around?" Before I can protest, he grabs my arm and drags me around the base. Just off the common room is a hallway that leads to the cafeteria, and as the Scout pointed out, the door at the opposite it leads to the respawn room. Just down the hallway is a set of several doors.

"These are the sleeping quarters. That's my room, right there." He indicates the first door, which has a shining number one nailed to it. "And y'know, if yah ever have a bad dream, yah can come in by me." He gives a wink, and all I can do is laugh and roll my eyes.

"Oi assure yah Oi'll be fine by mahself, kid." I glance at the doors; nine total, meaning each team member got one room to themselves. "Which room is mine?"

He leads me to the end of the hall, to a room with the number 8 on it; it's right next to the resupply. _Damn, that's pretty bloody convenient. _I notice that hanging from my door handle is a key; no doubt the key to my room. I grab it, and after briefly struggling with the stubborn lock on the door, open it and step into the room. The moment I set foot in the room, I feel my jaw drop. It's a small room, about the size of an average hotel room; however, it appears to be a fully-furnished apartment. I look around, stunned. I take no time in quickly looking through the wall covered in cabinets, finding a closet filled with what I think is the standard uniform; A white undershirt, blue button-up shirt, gray jeans, and a black vest. There's a desk situated underneath what at first appears to be a small attic-ish space; but as I look closer, I realize it's a sleeping nook, with a full-size bed laden with a pair of soft-looking pillows and a thick fluffy comforter. Off to the side, there's a small door I that leads to a pint-sized bathroom, complete with a Barbie shower and separate room for the toilet.

It's as I'm going to check out the bathroom when I notice the Scout had followed me in. "What're you still doin' here, mate?"

"Just enjoying the stunned look on your face. 'S pretty cute, y'know."

I glance at him, with his smug little smile; and roll my eyes. "Shouldn't Oi be meetin' the other team members? Surely there're a few more?"

"Oh, yeah, right." He shakes himself, snagging my arm again and dragging me out of my room before I can lock it. He pulls me outside now, out onto the abandoned battlefield. Out here, there are a couple other people. One of them is a short, stocky man in a blue military uniform. Another is a tall slender man in a formal suit and tie. The man in the suit has a mask covering his face, leaving only his eyes and mouth visible. The two appear to be arguing, over what though, I don't know. Between them, apparently trying to separate them, is a man who is completely covered in head to toe with a fireproof suit and gas mask. As we approach, the man in the suit turns to face us. I notice the cigarette poised between his lips, and I put two and two together.

"So I assume you're the one who's ben stinkin' up the base?" I say to him, catching the attention of the other two men. The man in the uniform steps forward, and I'm nearly blown away by his loud voice.

"You're right about that, young lady. This bratty Frenchman's smoking has tainted our base, and I'm sick and tired of it!" At this point, he turns to the man in the suit, glowering. "I demand that you smoke outside of the base from now on! Not all of us want to die of lung cancer!" I stifle a laugh, looking curiously around at the Frenchman.

"So, who the bloody hell are you all?" I ask, looking back at the loud military man.

"Ah, ma petit, you must be ze new Sniper." The masked man says, smirking. "I am ze team's Spy. Eet is my job to pick off the stragglers of ze ozzer team."

"Yeah, he's a backstabbing snake! I'm the Soldier, and I outrank everyone on this team!" The loud man waves off the Spy. I look past him at the last man, the one in the fireproof suit.

"Wot about you, mate?"

"Mmmph mmph mmmmmph!"

"Wot was that?" I ask, taken aback.

The Spy steps up, shaking his head. "Zat ees ze Pyro, ma cher. He says he's glad to meet you. He can't speak very well through his mask."

I turn my gaze onto the Pyro, who gives me a friendly wave in return. I smile and wave back. _He seems nice enough…_ I don't have much time to dwell on these three new men, however, as my thoughts are interrupted by a certain loud Soldier.

"I assume you've already been briefed on you mission for tomorrow?" He asks, booming across the field. I nod, and he continues. "You'll have to be careful, though! The REDs have a rather nasty Sniper on their side! He's a slippery bushman, and he'll take you out before you can even load your gun! Make sure you take him out first!"

"I assure yah, mate, he'll be out before he can fire a shot." I say, smirking at the thought of taking out another poorly-hidden sniper. That what sniping is all about, anyway. Finding a good hiding spot.

"There's also a Spy on their team!" The soldier goes on, as tough he hadn't heard me at all. "He's got a thing for taking out our Sniper, so make sure that pesky Spy isn't behind you!" I merely nod, waiting for the Soldier to finish. It takes quite a bit longer than I thought, and as I walked away with the Scout, I made a mental note not to get stuck listening to one of the Soldier's "briefings" again.


	2. Suddenly War

"_The enemy has taken our intelligence._" The battlefield below me is in complete chaos, as both teams scramble desperately to get the intel back to their base first. The day's been a struggle from the very beginning, but that's nothing new. The game's been like this for the past three weeks; unpredictable, and extremely well-balanced. I'd learned that the Soldier was right about that damned Spy. Not less than two minutes after my first match started, I met him. And it was definitely _not_ an easy fight.

Just as I took out the enemy Sniper for the third time in a row, I heard something behind me, like a rush of wind. I turned to see a man who looked almost identical to our Spy, except his suit was a deep crimson. As soon as I saw him, he had his knife out, and he was slashing and stabbing, trying desperately to land a hit on me as I hastily dodged the blade. I dipped beneath his arm as he slashed at my cheek, snagging my kukri off the old crate I'd set it on at the beginning of the battle. Just as he turned around, I hacked the blade heavily into his shoulder. He cried out in mingled pain and fury, raising his knife in one last attempt to land a hit on me before I cracked the butt of my kukri against his temple. He crumpled to the floor in an almost pathetic manner, and I had to kick his body off the top of my rifle before returning to my post.

Ever since then, the RED Spy has targeted me the most. Occasionally, I'll take him out on the field while he tries to backstab our Medic, but more often than not, it'll be a fierce fight in my crow's nest.

As the enemy Scout runs across the covered bridge to the RED's base, I take him down with a quick shot through the heart. "_The enemy has dropped our intelligence._" I chuckled to myself, shooting the RED's Pyro as he ran towards the briefcase right between the eyes.

"Watch yourself, wanka, Bella's about… And she don't play very nice with REDs." I laugh, but pause when I hear the creak of the stairs behind me. I lower my rifle, grabbing my kukri and standing at the ready, waiting for that damned RED Spy to come flaunting my way. However, to my slight surprise, our own Scout saunters in, looking as stuck-up as usual.

"Hiyah, toots!" He laughs, "How's it going up here?" I look at him in surprise for a moment before swinging my kukri into his shoulder; it bounces off harmlessly, leaving no mark on the Bostonian.

"Oh shut up, wanka." I murmur while he gives me a surprised look. "Oi gotta spoicheck, y'know?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I got it." He laughs it off, plopping down onto one of the dusty crates scattered around the top floor of our base.

"So," I say, taking a quick look through my scope to see if any other unfortunate REDs have tried to get close to the briefcase. "Wot're yah doin' here, wanka? Oi thought you were going for the enemy intel."

"Eh." He shrugs. "I've already capped it twice, and the Heavy's on the way to our room with the last case now." He grins at me, sliding forward on his makeshift seat. "So I've got a bit a spare time."

I roll my eyes for dramatic effect. Ever since day one, this kid hasn't left me alone. I can't seem to go through a round without one of his special little visits. Recently he's been making every excuse in the book. "The round's almost over, toots, it's fine." "Oh, Soldier said to take a break and help to defend." "I'm letting someone else take care of the intelligence today." It's really starting to make me curious; as far as I know, I'm not exactly the most attractive girl out there. But, I suppose, with the only girls on the team being the Engineer and I, there was bound to be a bit of irritating flirting for the first couple days until they realized I wasn't interested. And there was; mostly drunken slurs from the Demoman and miserable failures from the Soldier. However, our Scout seemed particularly relentless.

"_Our intelligence has returned to our base. We have secured the enemy intelligence._" The voice of the Announcer shakes me from my thoughts. "_Victory._" I hear the crackle of the critical hit device revving up in my rifle, but I ignore it. I don't feel the urge to go out and make a few last kills for the day; and apparently and uncharacteristically, neither does Scout.

"Don't you wanna go take out the last few stragglers?" I ask, gathering up my gear as he shakes his head. "Didn't you say that was the best part? Beating down the idiot REDs in their own base?" he merely shrugs in response, and I go back to getting my shit together.

"_Return to base._" The last announcement booms over the battlefield's intercom, and we all head back into our base. The victory wasn't much to celebrate, but nonetheless, it was indeed the last battle for the week, and we had two days off to do with as we pleased. Most of the people on the base went to the next town over. According to the Engineer it was a great place for gambling. I'd never gone on one of these weekly trips though, and hadn't even left the Team Fortress base since I had first entered it. Of course, I felt no need to leave. The base's common room had a television, and I'd brought a few books with me to read. I wasn't the only one to stay. Pyro often stayed at the base and cleaned up the cafeteria and common room. The Spy also wasn't one for the trips, and hardly left his room on the weekends. Oddly enough, our Engie wasn't running for the door either. She spent a lot of holed up in her room, or once last weekend, in the Spy's room. "Fixing his disguise kit" is what she told me. I doubted that was the truth; I could hear the moaning from the other side of the base.

The one thing I found odd was our Scout. Usually, he went out on the weekend excursions; I didn't blame him, either. That kid, pent up in a base all week? God have mercy on our souls. However, it appeared that he was staying this weekend; although I couldn't get him to say why. He did, however, feel the need to blather on about everything else. His stories were wild, strange, and dare I say it, probably true. As the day went on, his ramblings started to entertain me more than the crappy reality television shows.

"And then," He went on dramatically, "I punched his dumb ass right in the teeth; he lost three of 'em!" I laughed with him, leaning back against the couch while a news report played quietly in the background. However, as the words "War Declared" flashed across the fuzzy screen, my attention was drawn to the report. A worried-looking news anchor sifted through her notes, speaking rapidly and trying to gather as much information as she could.

"_The United States has officially declared war against North Korea. While the fighting has been going on mainly in the Korean Peninsula, the CIA recently discovered that North Korea has sent undercover troops to America. After a week of debate, Congress declared war on North Korea, and have initiated several counter-espionage missions. The federal government has already begun searches for these undercover troops, and urges citizens to stay in their homes at this time. We're now turning our report over to Susan Braxton on the streets of New York City where a riot has broken out over the decision_-"

"Damn, can you believe that?" Scout mutters, "The last thing this country needs is a war." He rests back against the couch, scowling at the reporter on the screen.

"The world can be a crazy place, kid." I say, nudging his elbow with my own. "Oi'm sure it'll turn out for the best though. Better than lettin' 'em get the jump on us, don't yah think?"

"Yeah…" He lets a long breathy sigh, and we both watch as the reporter is bombarded by several angry people, brandishing bats and shouting profanity. "I just wish that sometimes we could all jus' get along, y'know? We shouldn't fight all the time."

"That's pretty deep for yah, Scout." I chuckle, "Where'd that all come from?"

"Aw, shut up."

~just ignore me for I am just a simple line~

**Hi there! Thanks so much for reading this so far. I'll be updating it as much as I can, and as frequently as I can. Reviews are very much appreciated~ Think I'm doing great? Think it's awful and I should just end it now? Think kittens are fucking adorable? Just leave me a review giving me your thoughts and where you think this is going; and yes, I promise it's going somewhere. This one's gonna be a multi-chapter fic. So yeah. DO THE THING**


	3. Downstairs

The declaration of war was just the beginning. Soon, the entirety of the news was taken up by reports on the current standing of the war. Several countries had taken sides, and every day we caught word of some other country that had joined the fighting. Within a week, almost the entire world was involved in the fighting; and the few countries that remained neutral were hassled by both sides to join in on the war effort. A majority of the reports were taken over by the string of multiple bombings that had occurred within the past three days. Several once immense cities had been reduced to rubble in a matter of hours. And although none of the countries fighting had gone nuclear, there was always the threat looming overhead.

The fighting hasn't yet reached our little desert._ We've been safe and sound in our bases, watching and worrying every night as the bombings edge closer and closer to us and our sanctuary. _I'm not worried, though. I'm one of the few who feels that we might just be ignored._ We are just a tiny pinprick on the map, in the middle of a desert that stretches for nearly 100 miles. We aren't important enough to be bombed._

My thoughts are interrupted by an explosion caused by the enemy team's Demoman, launching a grenade up towards the top floor of our base. The explosion rocked the ground beneath my feet, and as I struggled to regain my balance, I saw another explosive flying towards me. I gave up, throwing myself to the ground and bracing my arms over my head. The following explosion covers my back in dirt, and I feel some of the debris embed itself into my back.

"Oh, brilliant…" I mutter, getting to my feet gingerly, groaning in pain as I feel a glass shard digging into my shoulder. "MEDIC!" I holler, but I then I notice the German is down in the field, ubercharged and running beside his Heavy. As I start limping towards the resupply, I hear a loud crunching noise behind me, and I turn to see the RED Spy crumpling to the ground, his skull bashed in by a worried-looking Scout.

"Hey, yah gotta be more careful Snipes." He says, stepping over the dead Spy's body. "You're lucky I was heading for the resupply, or yah woulda gotten backstabbed."

"Yeah…" I manage. "Thanks for that." I turn away, and continue my struggle towards the resupply. I feel someone slip under my arm, and see Scout sliding my arm around his shoulder to help me walk. I smile my thanks to him, and we wobble the rest of the way. I stumble once, but he catches me before I hit the ground.

When we get into the safety of the base's respawn, he set me down on one of the benches and went to the medicine cabinet at the back of the room. After rummaging through the crowded shelves, he comes back with a bottle of pills like the ones that were often hidden around the battlefield. He hands me the bottle, and I crack it open, fishing out one of the bright blue pills and swallowing it. I feel the healing effect begin immediately; soon the bits of glass that were embedded in my back have clattered to the floor, and my wounds have healed completely.

Just as I go to hand him the bottle, an explosion shakes the building. It wasn't a little one, either; this wasn't some Demoman's grenade or Soldier's rocket. The medicine cabinet topples over, spilling several rolls of gauze and various bottles onto the floor. Bullets and bits of metal are thrown across the room, and it's all the both of us can do to avoid them. Another explosion, just as powerful as the last, causes Scout and I to go crashing into the floor. A gurgled alarm wails, and the Announcer's panicked voice calls us all to return to our respective bases; IMMEDIATELY.

Scout helps me to my feet as the rest of the team piles through the resupply's doors. Most of them are sporting minor cuts and bruises. The Engineer's face was bleeding heavily from a wound on her cheek; the Spy was walking behind her, digging a handkerchief from his pocket, presumably to help stop the bleeding.

We shove our way through the heavy double doors and back into our base; we have to stop rather abruptly, however, because a woman is standing in our path.

"Come with me." She says, and I recognize her voice as that of the Announcer. She leads us down the hall, past the sleeping quarters, to a door at the end of the hallway; I've always been curious as to where it leads. Nobody on BLU knows anything about it, other than it's always locked. She quickly punches a few numbers on the keyboard, and the door slides open to reveal several flights of stairs. As we walk down the seemingly endless sets of stairs, she begins to explain the situation.

"As I'm sure you all know by now, our country is at war. Until now, our bases have been safe from the conflict, and our testing has been ignored. However, that is no longer the case. A few moments ago, enemy forces bombed our base, and our respawn went out.

"The Mann brothers were always so paranoid about this, and it seems their paranoia has paid off; this bunker was built to protect against several forms of tactical and chemical weapons. We cannot continue testing, now that the war has reached us. None of us can leave the base now without dying.

"This bunker is very basic in function and is rather similar to what you lived in previously; however, the rooms are situated differently. There are five rooms total; meaning, you must sleep in pairs." At this, there was a groan from several of the team member, who had all grown used to their solitary sleeping quarters back in the base. The Announcer ignored them, however, and went on. "There is a small common area as well as a kitchen and dining area. There is also a short hallway connecting the RED quarters to ours, in case of any emergency. Unless there is an emergency, that door is not to be opened. Is that clear?" There was a general murmur of agreement. "Good. We can't have any irrational fighting breaking out, now that our respawn has died." After this, she goes silent. It's only a few short minutes until we reach the bottom of the long staircase, and the Announcer steps up to yet another door and punches in another code. As the door slides open, the bunker is revealed to look like a miniaturized version of the living space in the base. It didn't look much like a bunker at all, accepting the lack of windows.

"Now, so there will be no skirmish over who shares a room with who, you will soted alphabetically. Accepting the Pyro, of course; he will be allowed his own room for reasons of privacy." The Announcer then pulls out a sheet of paper, and sets it on a side table in the common room. "I have to go and brief the REDs on their situation now; I expect the cooperation of you all in this difficult time." And with that, she opened the door connecting our quarters to the REDs and disappeared down the long hallway.

The Medic strode over to the side table and picked up the paper, opening it and clearing his throat. "I'll read our ze names, shall I?" he paused, as though waiting for an answer, and then looked down at the list. "Ze Demoman vill be vith ze Engineer, in room one." There was a groan from both the Demo and Engie; the pair weren't keen on each other, quite the opposite in fact. The Medic ignored them, and continued. "Ze Heavy vill be vith Me in room three, ze Soldier vill be vith ze Spy in room four," There was a hiss from the Frenchman as he glared over at his new roommate, "And ze Scout vill be vith ze Sniper in room two." He paused and then smiled over at the Pyro. "Ze pyro vill be by himself in room five."

I could already feel Scout's eyes burning into me. "So, we're sharing room now huh? I told yah you'd come around eventually." He laughs, and I shove him playfully.

"Not by my accord, Scout. You're just a lucky little wanka." I grin and start towards my new bedroom with Scout on my heels. I crack open the door to see what'd I'd been expecting to see in a bunker. The room was quite plain, with two twin beds situated into the back corners of the room. Each one had a bedside table, and there was a chest at the foot of both beds for clothing and any personal items. I felt a smile creeping onto my lips. Somehow, this all was so exciting and terrifying and awful and wonderful at the same time.

The scout followed me into the room, plopping down on one of the beds and tossing his hat on top of the nightstand. "Home sweet home." He murmured, settling on top of the blankets and smirking at me. "Although I dunno why they gave us two beds."

~HELLO I AM A LINE~

**Sorry this took so long to upload, I've been working on a Cecilos oneshot, plus I haven't been spending much time at home. Leave a review, I'd love any feedback you have for me!**


	4. Quick Hiatus

**Hey there, readers. Sorry about the lack of an update; I'm absolutely swamped this year. I'm taking two college credit classes, a foreign language, advanced math, and honors english. To keep it brief, I have enough homework to choke a walrus, plus a fuckton of studying to do; I'll be posting another chapter as quickly as I can, plus maybe some concept art to my dA if I have the time. Until then, I wish you a happy hiatus from the fic, and I hope you'll stick with me and be patient.**

**~Rioku**


	5. She's Back and it's About to Go Down

**Good day, people of the internet! Thanks to those who've reviewed, favorite, or followed me~ I'm glad to have you onboard. I'll be posting some concept art soon to make up for my absence, hopefully by the next chapter! I'll try to keep this story current and upload quickly, as well as work on finishing off the WTNV/DW crossover story I started a couple weeks ago. So, read on~**

**By the way, I'm dropping the Sniper's written accent. It's annoying and requires too much careful editing to use, and it's just easier to write "I" instead of "Oi" and "what" instead of "wot." Don't shoot me, I'm just trying to put out chapters faster.**

~ey look a thing~

The television in the bunker is possibly the shittiest thing I've ever had to misfortune of trying to watch. The news that came through the blurry old screen wasn't all that pleasant, either. The war, it seemed, had somehow gotten worse after Team Fortress's employees had been forced down into the bunkers. Bombings have become more frequent, and even this far underground, we can still feel the earth shudder under the explosions on the surface. Once last week, a particularly aggressive blast threw several of us off our feet.

The explosions, of course, weren't the only issues that came along with this little escapade. In the beginning, both of the bunkers were stuffed to the gills with food and other essentials. But by now, half of the food was gone; and Soldier had decided that, since we were in the midst of a crisis, it would be best to ration our food supply. This had caused uproar from a few of the more "pampered" guys (meaning the Scout and the Spy, who for once agreed on something); this, of course, led to a yelling match between the three of them. The rest of us just listened, half-amused, as the Soldier threatened to throw the whiney pair back onto to surface.

Other than the whining over food, the Scout had begun to go mad in his closed quarters. His boredom had already led to several plates and glasses being broken, a crack in his bedpost, and a short-circuiting light fixture in the common room. He didn't just break things in his boredom, however; he also spent a great deal of time following me around, like some kind of lost puppy. His usual douchebag attitude was slipping away with every day, replaced by the express need to watch my every move from across the room. He was desperately trying to make it less obvious; but I still noticed. I could occasionally catch his eye if I looked up quick enough; I could feel his gaze whenever I was looking away. At this point, I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or completely creeped out. But I did know one thing; every time I caught him staring, I could feel this little flutter in my stomach.

Okay, it was a bit more of a flutter. But I'm a mercenary, and bloodthirsty mercenaries don't have middle school girl crushes on their teammates. I kept telling myself that it was just my boredom, and that I _didn't_ have any sort of romantic feelings for that little twat. Like that would stop my heart from leaping to my throat whenever he walked into the room.

If dealing with my newfound "feelings" for the Scout weren't enough, our Engineer's escapades were enough to drive me mad. She'd taken to locking herself and the Spy into the supply closet while I was forced to stand guard. Well, I say forced; it was more that I felt forced. I mean, after all, she was the closest thing to a friend I had on this base; she'd even told me her name. Donna, that's what she told me. At first, I didn't believe her; however, she trusted me, and proved it on more than one occasion. Often, she would tell me about her family back in Texas; she weaved beautiful tales of her little brother who was still in high school who was constantly causing trouble, her ailing mother who was under the care of an old family friend, and her baby cousins. After thinking about for quite a while, I doubted she would lie to me now after she'd told me so much.

Either way, it was an inconvenience. Standing guard at a supply closet with two people shagging right inside the door inconspicuously proved to be a rather difficult task. The supply room was mostly excess bedding and other things that we usually didn't need more of, but occasionally someone would want to snag something from the room. I'd usually grab a couple common items from the room and have sitting conveniently sitting somewhere else, so that I could quickly steer someone away from the door that was hardly sound-proof. However, the pyro came around once and refused to leave until he got into the room; he stayed for a solid ten minutes, trying to push past me, until the Soldier called him over to look at some stupid metal thing he found in the couch cushions.

All in all, the environment was hardly relaxing; the chaotic war going on overhead was the least of my worries.

I was awoken by someone hollering, most likely the Soldier. I rolled over to see the Scout already awake, tugging on a shirt and shoes.

"What's going on?" I asked, tossing my legs over the side of the bed. "What's happened?"

"There was an explosion in the RED bunker." He muttered, struggling with a shoelace. "Their Demo was screwing around with someshit and blew his face off; only a couple of the REDs are hurt, but the bunker is burned to a crisp." At this, he finished tugging his shoes on and jogged out the door.

"Bloody idiot… He could've gotten us all killed." I hissed. I glanced down at what I was wearing; shorts and a tank top was appropriate enough. I tugged on my boots and headed to the door that Scout had left open.

The common room was chaos; people were running about with various bits and pieces of, well, everything. The Pyro was helping the Medic haul pretty much every piece of first aid materials he could from the supply closet. Donna was dragging armfuls of blankets and pillows from the supply room, and the Spy was clearing the living room, shoving the tables to the side of the room and lying couch cushions on the floor to create makeshift cots. Five RED team members were looming by the edge of the room, all looking shocked.

"Three unconcious…" the Medic mumbled, Heavy in tow, "You two!" he called to us, "Help me carry ze stretcher!" As he spoke, he indicated the stretcher that had been leaned against the wall next to our room. The Scout snagged the front end, and I the back. "Hurry!" Medic called, striding towards the door that led to the connecting hallway.

The Scout and I strode after him and the Heavy as they hauled open the door. Just we reached the door, the Pyro stopped us, and handed us a pair of gas masks. I nodded my thanks and jogged after the Medic, heading into the dark and damp hallway. It didn't take us long to hit the door to the RED room, which looked charred even in the dark. The Medic tugged at it, but the damned thing had been warped by the heat of the explosion.

"Heavy, if you may…" The Russian didn't need to hear more as he pushed us aside and charged at the door, cracking it in half with his shoulder.

When we entered the room, I was glad we had the masks; the air was full of smoke, dust, and debris. The whole place was glowing with the light of a small fire in the middle of the room. The far wall was spattered with red, where a grotesque-looking body lay on the floor in a pool of blood; undoubtedly the RED Demoman. On the remains of a table a few feet away was a girl, bloodied but still breathing. She had to be the RED Scout, infamous for finding sneaky new ways of getting into our base and getting the intel; she was bloody brilliant, from what I'd heard. We followed the Medic as he went over to her and helped him pull the girl onto the stretcher.

"Go, take ze girl back into our base." He waved us off, and we walked back through to hallway and back through the door. We were greeted by the Spy, who snagged the girl off the stretcher and laid her delicately on one of the makeshift cots; then, we jogged back to the RED bunker. However, before we even got to the door, the Heavy came barreling down the hall with two people slung over his shoulders and the Medic close on his heels, who looked terrified.

"Ve need to seal zis hallway off _now._" He said as we passed. I turned back to look at the door into the RED bunker, except there wasn't a door; flames licked at the framework that remained at the gaping hole of an entrance to the bunker.

Overwhelming doesn't even cover the RED's presence in our bunker. Tensions were high, and people were constantly bickering. The BLU Medic had confiscated everyone's weapons and locked them in the supply closet after the Soldiers tried to shovel each other to death, as if three injured people wasn't enough. Our Spy and the BLU Sniper were always making jabs at each other, and the RED Engineer took every opportunity he could to make fun of me (he was just mad because I could take out his stupid sentries with such ease).

The Medic and I got along very well with our counterparts, however, as well as the Scouts; they were practically best friends by the second day. That peeved me, and I didn't want to think of the reason. Those two spent quite a lot of time together; but it was only because the Scout was assigned to running her supplies. The poor thing was stuck on the cushion-less couch with a broken leg. I tried to spend as much time with her as I could; after all, I did feel bad for her. Imagine spending all that time running around and then having to sit still for ages.

The Medics, of course, were bonding over the suffering of enemies and teammates alike; there was so much to be done. The pair was having difficulty healing people with the limited supplies afforded to them; several REDs were nursing burns and cuts from debris. The three that were found unconscious, the Scout, the Spy, and the Engineer, had gotten the blunt of the blast. They'd all suffered from severe burns and cuts, and both the Medics were running short on bandages and medicine already.

More than once, our Soldier had offered to go up the surface and get more supplies, but he'd been shot down by Miss Pauling every time; however, every time she seemed to be less sure than before. Then, one day when things seemed incredibly bleak, she said yes.

**So cliffhanger much suspense wow**

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